Pmbok

School of Business

Module 1, S15

Project Management Assignment 1

Chapter 1 – Introduction to PMBOK

1. What are PMBOK, a Project, and Project Management and what role do they play?

A project is any work that happens only once, has a clear beginning and end, and is intended to create a unique product or knowledge. It may involve only one person, or thousands. It may last several days, or many years. It may be undertaken by a single organization, or by an alliance of several stakeholders. A project may be as simple as organizing a one-day event or as complex as constructing a dam on a river.

PMBOK stands for Project Management Body of Knowledge. It is a standard guide for managing most projects in many industries which describes the “project management processes, tools, and techniques used to manage a project toward a successful outcome.”

Project Management is the discipline of planning, organizing, and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives. A project is a finite endeavor (having specific start and completion dates) undertaken to create a unique product or service which brings about beneficial change or added value. This finite characteristic of projects stands in sharp contrast to processes, or operations, which are permanent or semi-permanent functional work to repetitively produce the same product or service. In practice, the management of these two systems is often found to be quite different, and as such requires the development of distinct technical skills and the adoption of separate management philosophy, which is the subject of this article

The primary challenge of project management is to achieve all of the project goals and objectives while adhering to classic project constraints usually scope, time and budget. The secondary and more ambitious challenge is to optimize the allocation and integration of inputs necessary to meet pre-defined objectives. A project is a carefully...